Blah blah blah. Anthropomorphize anthropomorphize anthropomorphize. Maybe sea cuttles (teehee) are just into that. I mean, you know, maybe they’re bros, and he’s just tryin’ to help out his little friend who otherwise has no luck with the ladies. Cuttlefish wing-man, anyone? It’s equally plausible, if you’re going to jump on the anthropomorphizing bandwagon.

(and if you want me to get all Roughgardian, I’d say this is an incomplete story – we need to know what other benefits that having the little dude around does for both the male, female, and fitness of their offspring. This whole ‘sneaker’ thing is a data-less supposition of our gendered values on the whole thing. Unless you have real data on cost with no benefit, which I’d find interesting, not to mention unlikely – once the ability to recognize a ‘sneaker’ evolves, that strategy is shut down.)

Need I remind you, this is territory I’ve covered before. I’m guessing some re-dubbing of this video could tell a very different and equally plausible story.

p.s. I don’t know this literature at all. I’m just raising some points about cultural filters of sexual selection. If this has been worked out and cost to the larger male without a benefit of any sort has been shown, I’d love to hear the definitive story. In the mean time, Scott Richmond should be proud!